On August 2, the Latvian Saeima Foreign Affairs Commission approved a draft resolution recognizing the violent actions of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and its residents as terrorism, and the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

This was reported by the LSM broadcaster.

The statement said that Russia purposefully attacks the civilian population of Ukraine, using suffering and intimidation as a tool to try to demoralize the people and the armed forces of Ukraine, to paralyze the capacity of the Ukrainian state, to try to occupy Ukraine. The deputies noted that Russia was committing this violence in order to achieve political goals.

Members of the commission categorically condemned Russia's military aggression and large-scale invasion of Ukraine, carried out with the support and participation of the ruling regime of Belarus, and called on the Euro-Atlantic community and other allies to urgently strengthen and impose comprehensive sanctions against Russia to stop the Russian army from continuing its aggression against Ukraine.

The statement approved by the commission calls on other countries to express the same attitude toward Russia - to explicitly recognize it as a state that supports terrorism, said Richard Kols, head of the commission.

He explained that the commission will ask the Saeima to pass a resolution at the next meeting. This will most likely happen on August 11.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics on Sunday again urged the European Union to recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism because its actions in many ways resemble the Islamic State.

"We see all the brutality of the Russian forces, which indeed resembles in many ways ISIS, which we have always called a terrorist organization. Let's call things by their proper names," he explained.